Widening disparities in health between educational levels and their determinants in later life: evidence from a nine-year cohort study

Table 1 Comparing health and other variables by educational level^a (N = 20,024)

Educational level	Men (n = 9320)				Women (n = 10,704)
	Lower	Middle/higher	Difference		Lower	Middle/higher	Difference
	(A)	(B)	A-B	p-value	(A)	(B)	A-B	p-value
Health variables
(1) Values at baseline
Self-rated health	2.84	2.68	0.16	< 0.001	2.91	2.68	0.23	< 0.001
(range: 1-6)	(0.97)	(0.94)			(0.96)	(0.90)
Functional limitations	0.22	0.14	0.08	0.007	0.32	0.21	0.11	< 0.001
(range: 0-10)	(1.27)	(0.99)			(1.44)	(1.07)
Psychological distress	2.66	2.72	−0.06	0.584	3.16	3.05	0.11	0.301
(range: 0-24)	(3.71)	(3.77)			(4.04)	(3.82)
(2) Changes over ten waves
Self-rated health	0.21	0.15	0.06	0.042	0.16	0.14	0.02	0.404
Self-rated health	(1.05)	(1.00)			(1.00)	(0.94)
Functional limitations	0.27	0.24	0.03	0.505	0.47	0.26	0.21	< 0.001
Functional limitations	(1.94)	(1.66)			(2.19)	(1.72)
Psychological distress	0.58	0.05	0.53	< 0.001	0.60	0.37	0.23	0.029
Psychological distress	(4.22)	(3.85)			(4.21)	(3.95)
Potential mediators over ten waves
Low household spending^b	0.45	0.34	0.11	< 0.001	0.49	0.37	0.12	< 0.001
Low household spending^b	(0.50)	(0.47)			(0.50)	(0.48)
Low social activity^b	0.53	0.30	0.24	< 0.001	0.53	0.28	0.24	< 0.001
Low social activity^b	(0.50)	(0.46)			(0.50)	(0.45)
Low physical activity	0.98	0.95	0.04	< 0.001	0.97	0.94	0.03	< 0.001
Low physical activity	(0.14)	(0.23)			(0.18)	(0.24)
Smoking	0.61	0.51	0.10	< 0.001	0.29	0.19	0.10	< 0.001
Smoking	(0.49)	(0.50)			(0.46)	(0.40)
Problem drinking	0.19	0.17	0.02	0.022	0.12	0.10	0.02	0.063
Problem drinking	(0.39)	(0.37)			(0.32)	(0.30)
No regular health check-up	0.80	0.66	0.14	< 0.001	0.82	0.75	0.06	< 0.001
No regular health check-up	(0.40)	(0.48)			(0.39)	(0.43)
Number of individuals	1452	7868			1631	9073

ISSN: 1471-2458